Kleine-Levin Syndrome - Presentation and Symptoms

Presentation and Symptoms

Individual sufferers may often become irritable, lethargic, and/or apathetic. KLS patients may appear disoriented and report hallucinations. Symptoms are cyclical; with days to weeks (even up to months) of suffering interspersed by weeks or months (even up to years) symptom-free. Although resolution of the disorder may occur for some in later life, this is not universal.

Hypersomnia is a primary symptom of KLS, and is present in all subjects. Subjects are often treated initially for a sleeping disorder. During a KLS episode, subjects often spend an average of 16 hours a day asleep, while some patients can sleep for even longer periods. Another defining symptom of KLS is an altered mental state during the episode. Subjects are hard to arouse from this sleep, and are irritable or aggressive when prevented from sleeping. Subjects also frequently show cognitive impairment, and can show confusion, amnesia for the event, hallucinations, delusions, or experience a dream-like state. About 75% of KLS patients experience changes in eating behavior during episodes, with the majority of these exhibiting megaphagia. Reports describe patients who will eat anything placed in front of them with very little discrimination, resulting in consumption of excessive amounts of food. A small number of KLS patients report experiencing some sort of hypersexual behavior during the event, including promiscuity, excessive masturbation, inappropriate sexual advances, and other risqué, atypical behavior. Hypersexual behavior is more common in males than females, and is associated with a much longer disease course. Other unusual compulsions reported during the event are also not uncommon.